The R2 Standard is the leading certification for electronics repair and reuse. As the housing body for R2, SERI maintains the R2 Standard, related documentation, guidance, and facilitates its ongoing development.

SERI works with partners throughout the lifecycle of electronic products to ensure that they are managed responsibly. SERI's programs focus on education, outreach, safety, and international development.

SERI offers a variety of educational and training opportunities for recyclers, as well as opportunities for auditors and consultants. These trainings focus on implementing the R2 Standard, realizing a return on the investment in certification, discussing relevant issues or challenges related to recycling practices, and other topics.

Are We Living in a Post-Basel World?

Dec. 11, 2014

That's the question posed by Dr. Josh Lepawsky, a researcher at the Memorial University of Newfoundland. While acknowledging the Basel Convention's important role in shaping policy, Dr. Lepawsky offers interesting criticism as to how relevant it is in describing the current e-scrap trade.

From the Abstract:

The spirit of the Convention is to prohibit the dumping of hazardous waste from ‘developed’ countries to ‘developing’ countries. Yet, a careful consideration of the Convention suggests a problematic geographical imaginary at work in it. It imagines a bi-modal world comprised of what it calls Annex VII countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Community (EC) and Lichtenstein) and non-Annex VII countries (all other signatories) and seeks to prohibit the shipment of hazardous waste from the former to the latter. In effect, what this geographical imaginary attempts to institute is a world of trade in which all non-Annex VII territories are equally vulnerable to hazardous waste dumping from Annex VII territories, but not vulnerable to such dumping amongst themselves. Yet, the non-Annex VII grouping contains a hugely diverse set of countries, including the two largest non-Annex VII economies, China and India.

The R2 Standard is the leading certification for electronics repair and reuse. As the housing body for R2, SERI maintains the R2 Standard, related documentation, guidance, and facilitates its ongoing development.

SERI works with partners throughout the lifecycle of electronic products to ensure that they are managed responsibly. SERI's programs focus on education, outreach, safety, and international development.

SERI offers a variety of educational and training opportunities for recyclers, as well as opportunities for auditors and consultants. These trainings focus on implementing the R2 Standard, realizing a return on the investment in certification, discussing relevant issues or challenges related to recycling practices, and other topics.